When North Carolina and Alabama square off on Thursday night in Los Angeles, fifth-year senior Armando Bacot will likely play a big role in the game’s final outcome.
Bacot has put together another big year for the Tar Heels, earning All-ACC honors and playing well both on offense and defense. In the win over Michigan State, Bacot came alive in that first half and although he had his streak of seven-straight NCAA Tournament games with a double-double snapped, he played a huge role in that outcome.
But Alabama doesn’t appear to be intimidated by Bacot and Nate Oats is adding some fuel to that fire.
During an appearance on The Paul Finebaum Show, Oats revealed that his team won’t back down from Bacot at all. They have faced big men before and Bacot is just next in line.
“The good thing with us is we’ve played three really good nonconference teams back-to-back-to-back that all had really good post players. And they’re all in the Sweet 16,” Alabama coach Nate Oats said Tuesday on The Paul Finebaum Show. “We also played Clemson, who had PJ Hall.”
“So Carolina’s got Armando Bacot. We’ve been in these games. Now we went 0-4 in those four games, but we’ve played guys like this. We’ve been in them. We were up nine in the second half on Purdue, whose got the best big in the country. So it’s not like we’re going to be intimidated by Bacot.”
This should be a high-scoring and fast-paced game, so if Alabama wants to win they are going to have to slow down UNC from the three-point line and find a way to limit Bacot as well. Easier said than done, however.
Let’s hope Bacot finds a way to be a game-changer and lead UNC to a big win.
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